REALISM – WHAT IS IT EXACTLY?

Well, it was weekend and it was best time for all of us to study new philosophies. Well, searching through Wikipedia about political philosophies, there was a eye catching word called Realism!  To sum it up, A Realism is a political philosophy based on various premises. The first is that a world should be seen in terms of relative power. The theory applies both domestically and internationally, focusing on the individual and the state respectively. Realism asserts that all states and individuals are to work for their own self-interest, and that since there is a scarcity of resources in the world, there will be conflict. This leads to the premise that the basic state of affairs in the world is anarchic. War is inherent in the nature of a nation-state, according to Thomas Hobbes.

The world is a battle-zone, with each party acting to protect itself, increase its power base, etc. Along with this is an idea that connects to the notion of relative power: one can only increase one’s power by decreasing that of another. Morality is virtually non-existent (according to the realist doctrine). ‘Right’ or ‘good’ is defined by self-interest. If a certain action will give you a ‘leg up’, so to speak, then it is justified, and not only can you carry it out, but you should.

Some call realism a closed theory, saying that it can refute any action of apparent selflessness simply by saying that there must have been some ulterior motive behind the deed. To confirm this requires an in-depth knowledge of the functioning of the state, its officials, their intentions, etc.

Famous realists you may have heard of:  Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, St. Thomas Aquinas, Rousseau, Woodrow Wilson

Din e Elahi: Mass Peace Program

Jalal-ud-Din Akbar (1556-1605), the son of Humayun had three main phases in his life. One was firm belief in religion holding the founding tenets of Islam. The second started when he opened the doors of religious natter and dialogues in which he invited the religious scholars of different sects of Islam in the “Ibadat Khana” (the place of worship) but soon he was disillusioned with the attitudes of the Maulvies and scholars who started losing their tempers and even abused one another on petty issues.

Therefore the subsequent phase resulted in the promulgation of a new religion, din-e-Elahi. He accumulated the best practices of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Jainism and propounded the new religion in 1581.

 There are ten virtues which the Din-e-Elahi professes.

(1) liberal-mindedness and generosity

(2) forgiveness of evil-doers and repulsion of anger with mildness

(3) abstinence from worldly desires

(4) non-attachment to the materialistic world

(5) careful weighing of pros and cons of actions to be taken

(6) performance of noble deeds with courage

(7) softness of voice and gentle speech

(8) good behaviour to others

(9) absolutely no connection with bad characters and evil-doers

(10) total dedication to God

Din-e-Elahi was more an ethical cult than a religion as it did not present any common prayers or system as all these eclectic religions offered. It was based on ethical values considering and propagating slander, lust, and pride as deadly sins whereas piety, kindness, mercy as the commonalities of the diverse religions and were appreciated. Slaughter of cow was prohibited to accommodate Hinduism and celibacy was venerated. The religion had no script or written documentations. Din-e-Elahi could triumph over only 19 adherents consisting mostly of Muslims. Hindus and other religions did not embrace it though they appreciated the religious move of Akbar.

Din-e- Elahi met with fierce criticism by the believers of Islam as he denied the foundations of religion by appreciating celibacy and the prohibition of cow. The Hindus also could not accept it as a religion. Din-e-Elahi was intended to create harmony and integrity among the different religions though it could not bring the desired fruits.I think interpretation of religious teachings according to the wishes and agenda of rulers is not a new phenomenon. This is almost as old as the religion itself. Many scholars refused to act as Qazi under Muslim rulers, just because they were afraid of to act according to ruler's wish and not according to God's law.

Do me a favour answering one question, what is most important? Fighting on basis of religion for years or accepting each other perspective and living together with peace!

What if Din-e-Elahi succeeded and there would be a no separation of South Asia? What would be the present scenario then?

Our Brain Make us Fool!!

Our brains love playing tricks on us, and the results can be detrimental. Because of how we remember certain events, even a good experience can be recalled as an awful one because of one little problem. For example, a customer could have a great experience with a product or service, but only have bad memories when thinking about it later. Here’s how. Let’s say you are on vacation and have dinner at the best restaurant recommended to you. Perfect table. Food is exquisitely prepared. The experience is fantastic. However, when clearing the table the waiter spills coffee into your lap. Odds are that the coffee spill will degrade your memory of the food and wine, no matter how exceptional you otherwise would have remembered them. And if the hot coffee burned a leg or damaged an expensive dress or suit, the wonderful dining experience may not be remembered at all.

Basically, when something bad happens it overwrites the good portions of your memory. As we learn from bad ways , your brain likes to focus on the negative stuff. To counteract this, the best thing you can do is remind yourself of the good parts of the experience as soon as possible. Think about everything good that happened instead of the one bad moment. Perhaps the bad moment is enough to deter you, but if not you can use it as an opportunity to remind your brain to store a positive memory instead of a negative one.

Jinnah's Pakistan, anyone?

If you are a Muslim, and a Pakistani for that matter, then chances are that all that has enveloped you for the past week – and still is – is news and discussion of the anti-Islam film desecrating the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The video has spread like fire and enraged Muslims all over the world, and rightly so. And thus, whether you are at school/office, or hanging out with friends, or logged on to Facebook, this is all people are chattering about.

The purpose of this article, however, is not to discuss the film and start ranting about how the innocence of the Muslims was taken advantage of by the evils of the world, or how Muslims were, as always seems to be the case whenever something remotely bad happens, targeted by a Jewish conspiracy.

And then YouTube got banned in Pakistan. The timing of this particular event was highly annoying for me, for I had been working on a coding assignment that night and had to make a graph on Excel comparing the efficiency of different codes. Having studied the workings of Excel over two years ago, I had forgotten the bit about how to make graphs, and I thought to myself: No problem! I’ll just watch a tutorial on YouTube to see how it’s done. Which seemed to be the cue for the people over at the PTA responsible for banning access to the site, and thus I could not, for once, use YouTube for a purpose other than procrastinating.

The purpose of this article, however, is not to sympathize with my misfortune, or question the validity of the decision of banning YouTube.

Friday, 21^st September 2012; a date that will remain lodged in the minds of all Pakistanis for a long time, unwilling as though they may be to the intrusion of this day into their memory cells. The day was Yaum-e-Ishq-e-Rasool, a public holiday declared by the government to carry out a peaceful protest against the anti-Islam film.

Yaum-e-Ishq-e-Rasool? I think this day can be renamed better as, Yaum-e-paish-e-Jahiliat.

The protest involved people, most of them students, taking to the streets in a frenzied state after the Jumma prayers, and leaving destruction in their wake. Numerous cinemas (five alone in Karachi) and petrol pumps were set ablaze. Policemen tried their best to stop the mob, exhibiting use of tear gas and even live ammunition, but the tidal wave of the protestants fueled by a terrible anger was too much for them to handle, and many of them were injured and even killed in the process. Cars were smashed to pieces, and then set ablaze. People, barricades and buildings alike were showered with stones. Containers were overturned. Shops were looted. All in the name of the man who preached peace and forgiveness above all!

The purpose of this article, however, is not to exhibit shock over the madness of our countrymen, and start stating how the protest should really have taken place.

Because the protest that should have happened, did in fact, happen, and THAT is the purpose of this article.

As they say, the night is darkest before dawn. As a dejected me logged on to Facebook later in the night, I came across something which gave me hope. It was an event named ‘Project Clean Up for Peace’, and its basic aim was to gather people from all around Pakistan and get out on the streets, and use whatever resources available to clean up the mess that was created by the infuriated mob on Friday. The event caught popularity like fire to dry wood, and in less than three hours, about 1500 people had marked themselves as ‘going’, and this number continued to rise. It was certainly very pleasing to see the youth of the nation stepping up and accepting their responsibilities as dutiful citizens of the state; quite a contradiction to the typical ‘our youth is dead’ stereotypes.

I did not attend the event myself (I never was that big a patriot), but a couple of my friends did, and I also came across a lot of clips and videos. What I saw warmed my heart. Here were tens of hundreds of people, mostly youngsters, in different cities of Pakistan working in coordination with each other, PEACEFULLY. They were using brooms to clean roads and streets. They were brushing aside rubble and pieces of broken glass, and then putting them into shopping bags. They were repainting the barricades and building walls. They were repairing the check posts. They were distributing water and boxes of juice amongst the policemen. They were… redefining Pakistan.

Yes, indeed! With this simple and humble act, the youth of Pakistan managed to project a positive and totally different image of Pakistan to the world. The Pakistan which did not protest by rampaging and burning, but one which gave an actual purpose to the protest by displaying and promoting peace. The one which showed up with posters of not “Down with USA!” and “Kill enemies of Islam”, but rather ones saying “Respect all religions equally”, “Peace please?” and “Islam is a peaceful religion”. The one which did not vent out its anger and disappointment over the film senselessly, but one which used it to fuel the purposeful effort of cleaning up the devastation caused by a few illiterate individuals. Pakistan is not all about bombs, terrorism and poverty; it is also peace, love and harmony. These people managed to demonstrate just that.

The widely popular phrase “Jinnah’s Pakistan” doesn’t seem so alien now, does it?